My first real experience with an accident that was no doubt caused by a person paying attention to their phone rather than their driving was a bit scary, to say the least.
I was traveling down a two-lane, one-way street. I had two of my five wonderful kids in the car with me, seat belted of course. Seat belts are something in my youth, I am embarrassed to admit, I rarely wore myself, but am glad on this day that I chose to as an example for my children.
The speed limit was 45 mph and traffic was fairly busy at this time of day. I was driving in the left lane as I was going to make a left turn in a couple blocks. The radio was on and the kids were singing along with the song, if that’s what you want to call it. The thought ran through my head of what my mom called the music I listened to as a young kid. Now I knew exactly what she was talking about when she said “turn that garbage off!”
As we drove down the road, I could see that the woman in the big, four-wheel drive in front of us was doing something in the cab of her truck as she went from one side to the other as if she was looking for something. She reached into the glove box and then sat up straight and saw that she had drifted into the left and jerked the wheel so her truck would get back on track. As she did this, I saw that she had one hand on the wheel and one was holding her cell phone up to her ear.
I said to my son, “Look at that lady. She almost went off the road, and I bet she didn’t miss one word of the conversation on her phone.”
I backed off another car length, just in case. As we went further down the road, I was watching the traffic light; it had been green for a while and turned yellow as we were about 10 seconds from it. I watched the car in front of the pickup hit its brakes and slow down for the light that had now turned red. I also noticed that the four-wheel drive truck did not seem to be slowing down. A feeling of impending doom came across me. You know the feeling that you get when you are about to hit something and you have no way of stopping?
All seemed to turn to slow motion as I saw the rear end of the truck lift up from the force of hitting the car in front of it. I heard glass breaking, a blast of air as the front tires of the truck and rear tires of the car blew. I pulled as far left as I could, parked and jumped out to see if I could be of any help.
I ran to the car in front, it had been pushed by the truck into the car in front of it and the airbags had inflated. The lady in the car was OK but very dazed; she did not suffer any serious injuries. I then ran to the truck to check on the lady that had been on the phone. She had airbag dust all over her, and the bag had burned her face. It had all happened so fast that she had not taken the phone from her face and there was a perfect imprint of the phone on her mouth and cheek.
I did not say anything to her about being on the phone; I figured the police would be able to see for themselves. As I stood next to her truck by her door, she realized she had her phone in her hand and started to put it in her center console. It would not open due to the impact so she threw it on the floor along with all the other things that had been thrown from her purse. I could hear someone on the other end of the line say what was that? She grabbed the phone and turned the speaker off and told the person she had just been in an accident and had to go and hung up the phone.
A police officer walked up to us and asked if we were OK. I said I was behind her when it happened and was not hurt at all but he should take a look at her. I told the officer to check her brake lights to see if they worked because they had not came on at all during the crash. After talking to the lady for a few minutes, the officer came to me and asked if I had seen her brake lights at all?
“No, I don’t think she hit them.” I asked him if he had saw the mark shaped like a phone on her face? He said he had and said she told him she was not on the phone. As he started taking pictures he took one of her face and she looked into the door mirror and could see the undeniable mark on her face and decided to tell the truth about being on the phone.
You would think that seeing this in person would cure anyone from using their phone in a car, bus or any kind of vehicle. It’s just not worth the risk, but how many of us are still doing this in our own cars every day, thinking,”It won’t happen to me?” After all the deaths and injuries, you would think a person would be crazy to use their phone in the car.
Unfortunately, it still happens all the time. If I had to count how many of the last dozen or so accidents I have seen were caused by a phone in one way or another, I would say about 80 percent, at least. I hate to admit it, but I myself have been driving to work and have answered and returned texts thinking once again, “It won’t happen to me, my eyes are only off the road for a second.” A life can end in less than a second. I will admit I have had my wife yell at me for looking at my phone when I get a text in the car. I will also admit she threatens to clobber me if I try to text back.
So, even with all this evidence showing how deadly it can be to text or use your phone in a moving car, millions still do it. What will it take to get us to stop? Hopefully not the life of a loved one. Join me as I make a promise to the world not to put lives in danger. You think it could never happen to you, but thousands have said the exact same words as they answered that text. It was the last time they answered anything, ever. A close friend of mine put it perfectly when he said, “Phones are a great tool; let’s not make them a weapon, also.”
Darrel Christie is the assistant manager of student management for Brown Bus Company, a school bus contractor located in Nampa, Idaho.
